Kristen Stewart has opened up about her bittersweet filming experience on Happiest Season.
Back in 2020, Hulu released the groundbreaking LGBTQ+ holiday project – which made history as the first lesbian Christmas rom-com produced by a major studio.
The film follows the story of Abby (Kristen Stewart) and Harper (Mackenzie Davis), a lesbian couple who attend the latter’s annual Christmas festivities.
However, Abby discovers that Harper hasn’t come out to her conservative parents (Mary Steenburgen and Victor Garber), as well as her dysfunctional sisters (Alison Brie and Mary Holland).
Additionally, Parks and Recreation’s Aubrey Plaza and Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy starred in the film as Harper’s ex-girlfriend Riley and Abby’s best friend John, respectively.
Upon release, the movie received widespread acclaim for the cast’s performances, DuVall’s direction, and for finally providing LGBTQ+ audiences with some much-needed festive queer.
While Happiest Season has continued to positively impact the LGBTQIA+ community, Stewart recently opened up to Out about the “annoying” notes the film received from studio execs during production.
“I think it was a delight to ‘hide the vegetables,’ so to speak, in Happiest Season, and do something mainstream and jolly and digestible and ultimately, nutritious,” she explained to the news outlet.
“But I will say that all of the notes, like studio notes, that trickled down, I couldn’t get away from the visceral feeling of identity being squashed, even though we were trying to provide a service that wasn’t truly understood by the powers that be facilitated its existence.”
While Stewart has no regrets over making Happiest Season and praised Davis and Duvall, she described the constant studio pushback as a “f***ing annoying experience.”
“I loved the script. I loved the movie. It was just to do it in that format is why I really commend Clea, because I don’t have the patience for that,” she added.
This isn’t the first time Stewart has opened up about her frustration with film studios.
Back in January, the Twilight star revealed that her upcoming film The Chronology of Water – which is an adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir – has been near impossible” to secure funding.
“The current climate is a real, capital N ‘No’ for anything that has not been proven already,” she revealed to Variety.
“I think there’s an entire, yet-to-be-written female language. There’s a certain physicality to the type of film that I want to make that I think will be, in a slugline, really unattractive to quote-unquote ‘buyers,’ but in action, is entirely pervasively moving. This has not been an easy sell.”
Due to the setbacks that The Chronology of Water has faced, Stewart has threatened to quit acting until she reached her funding goal.
“I’m going to make this movie before I ever work for someone else. Yeah, I will quit the f**king business. I won’t make a-f**king-nother movie until I make this movie,” she added.
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